Money is a problem

In one of the more bizarre stories I can recall, A New York woman choked her boyfriend to death with a plastic bag when he ran out of money. The story was published in the New York Daily News, and was full of weird twists that probably made for an interesting day in court.
For one, the couple had meet in a psych ward, and where both released and later allowed to live together. Shouldn't the patients be required to have follow up visits. Second this woman had only dated white collar workers before so she should have expected less money.
It just seems that she should have been locked up more than 17 years for taking advantage of then killing a man with a true mental disability (bi-polar). She was a gold-diggerwho was way to greedy.